Thought processes and conversations started under the tilted cap of Tropicana Field. Someday everyone will know the Rays play in St. Petersburg, Florida, not TAMPA, or the fictitious city of TAMPA BAY.

I Forecast Moore Moments Like This

Kind of amazing that in the span of less than 3 days, the Tampa Bay Rays have provided their fans with complete opposite results, and even thrown a bit of pitching brilliance into the mix. We all knew Rays rookie Matt Moore had the goods to pull off a miraculous outing,and he delivered more than we all anticipated. Kind of ironic a first inning hit by a speedster ruined a chance at Moore getting his own piece of history.

I mean who does this 5′ 9” Marlin Donovan Solano’s think he is pushing the No-No out of the equation? Did this fellow rookie like Moore have to provide the solo single moment of Miami pride in just the second at-bat of the first inning. Well if you search further and see Solano has only gone to the plate 28 times so far in his rookie campaign and has produced a .393 batting average, we have to be thankful the guy doesn’t have down the alley power.

Interesting that a small adjustment in his game plan against the Marlins tonight might have paid the most dividends for Moore:

“ A week ago when I faced them, I think I threw 3 or 4 curveballs the entire game, so today was just a little bit of a different look for them. I feel like I had a good feel for it (curveball), especially in the 4th,5th,6th and 7th innings when I was throwing it for strike one. I’m not necessarily looking for a swing right there but I am looking to get ahead in the count; a little get-me-over to start 0-1. It was definitely nice to have another pitch to have them looking out for.”

I was talking to a visiting MIA fan in the bottom of the 1st inning and he remarked his team has seem to make it a habit of being “slump-busters” for their opposition this season. If you are having a bad time hitting, you have to hope a visit by the obliging Marlins is on the horizon. I have to be honest here, with their off-season pick-ups and their potential, this team should not be dwelling in the deep waters of their division. Still, the Rays have seemed to de-bone the fish recently, and we still have 2 outings to go in the seasonal Citrus Series.

With the Rays victory last night, they can take claim officially to the 2012 Citrus Series crown. Seems fitting a team whose stadium is sponsored by a citrus juice manufacturer (Tropicana) and based in the Tampa Bay area (Bradenton) hoist the Vitamin C enriched go-go juice. Interesting note, this gives the Rays their 4th title in the last 5 seasons. It’s not a dynasty, but I’ll raise a glass of Rudy Red or Tangerine to this squad.

Moore was on-point tonight, throwing good solid pitches, not conforming his strike zone, and basically showing that he might have finally turned the corner and put his sub-par previous outing to bed. Moore might not have gotten that elusive masterpiece, but it is hard to find fault in almost anything he did tonight. I mean the guy threw the 9th 1-hitter in Rays history, and the 6th under the tilted cap (Trop). Moore became the first Rays hurler to hold a team to 1 hit or less in 7 innings since former Rays P Matt Garza threw the only No-Hitter in Rays history back on July 26, 2010 versus the Detroit Tigers.

To be honest, Moore has been slowly finding his way back to the top of the pitching mountain. He has picked up a win now in all 3 of his last 3 starts after only posting a solo victory in his first 10 attempts in 2012. And Moore has put the work into his 3 wins going at least 6 innings in his last 4 starts after failing to get to that mark in 5 of his 6 previous starts to his pitching victory streak.

To really cement this achievement further as concrete proof Moore might have turned the corner, the Rays offense has scored 28 runs in support of Moore in his last 3 trips to the mound compared to the same total of runs in his first 10 starts of the season. When your team shows that kind of confidence and outpouring of run support, you got to believe the winning spirit is contagious.

Most people focus on the high velocity of Moore’s fastball (averages over 94 mph), but his weapon that probably paved the way for this great moment was his elusive curveball. Rays Manager Joe Maddon put it best when he stated:

“How about the curveball strike? That was a really big difference once he settled in and I loved the fastball. But I like the fact that he commanded his breaking ball without trying to overthrow it, making it too good of a pitch and then it started becoming a strike. Now they (hitters) have to honor the fastball and breaking ball mentally. That makes it difficult. So once he got into the groove with the breaking ball strike it made it a little easier for him”.

Moore tonight showed us all again the brilliance we knew was trapped inside his pitching arm. He showed a sharp mind of using a secondary pitch that was breaking and crossing the plate with accuracy and consistency and put the Marlins in “ thinking “ mode at the plate, wondering if they would be facing Moore’s hard heat, or wait on a mistake curveball that never seemed to materialize tonight. Backed by an impressive offensive explosion, Moore not only got the support he desperately needed to secure a win, he got a combined great defensive effort which had been lacking lately from this squad. All in all a superb night from first pitch to last. Definitely one for Moore, the Rays and their fans to savor for more than Maddon’s usual 30 minute window of celebration.

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2 Comments

I wasn’t really concerned about Matt Moore at any point this season, because numbers show that he’s always been a slow starter naturally. DRaysBay.com had an interesting piece at the start of the season showing how Moore suprisingly has struggled in every level of the minors for the first two months or so of the season: http://www.draysbay.com/2012/4/10/2937360/matt-moore-slow-starter

Yossif,
Thanks for the link, but I will pass. That site is not my cup of tea. They do a great job, and have a good writers…Just a site I do not visit. The great thing is the offense came out last night and covered Moore’s backside in an impressive display of power and hustle. Put Moore’s breaking ball dominance and the Rays offense waken up from a slumber and maybe I will use 6 of their uniform numbers for the Lotto tonight….Winner…winner…chicken…dinner

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